This week is all about Brad Keselowski as NASCAR’s newest star celebrates his first Sprint Cup championship.

For the past week, NASCAR has shuttled Keselowski all around the country, showing off its new champion and showcasing his colorful, engaging personality. Keselowski’s whirlwind tour will wind up this weekend when he is officially honored at the season-ending awards ceremony in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, many fans are celebrating, too, reveling in the fact that NASCAR finally has a new Cup champion for the first time since 2006. And reveling in the fact that Jimmie Johnson, the five-time champion that ruled NASCAR for half a decade, is no longer the face of the sport.

Those fans should enjoy themselves and soak up the anti-Jimmie sentiment.

Why?

Because it’s not likely to last long.

Johnson, 37, will be back with a vengeance next season and will have an even better shot at winning his sixth Sprint Cup championship.

Johnson, who won five straight titles from 2006-10, has now gone two straight seasons without winning the championship.

While that delights many fans, it no doubt makes Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team even hungrier and more determined to bounce back.

After his historic championship run, Johnson had an off year in 2011, winning just two races and finishing a career-worst sixth in points. After such a long and dominant run, it was understandable that Johnson and his Chad Knaus-led team faded a bit last season.

It likely was burned out from the tremendous focus and commitment that it took to produce such a spectacular run. How many athletes and teams could sustain such excellence for even that long?

Johnson and Knaus vowed that they would bounce back in 2012, and they did. They won five races and were on the verge of wrapping up their sixth title when a couple of rare mistakes and unlucky breaks in the final two races ruined their chances and opened the door for Keselowski to produce an upset.

Now, Johnson and Knaus likely will be even more ticked off and even more determined to make another run at a sixth championship. And they aren’t likely to make the same mistakes again.

Johnson and Knaus, arguably the greatest driver-crew chief duo in NASCAR history, desperately want to win a sixth title to move one step away from a record-tying seventh. That would put Johnson in the elite company of legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, and just one title away from breaking the record they share.

That is incentive enough.

But Johnson and his Hendrick team have another big factor in their favor.

The new 2013 Sprint Cup car.

NASCAR will unveil a brand-new, completely different car next season that it has spent the past two years developing.

The debut and implementation of that car will be a major storyline next season and a big challenge for all Sprint Cup drivers and teams.

While the car is expected to be a big hit with fans and the auto manufacturers, it likely will be a huge headache for drivers and teams. It took them nearly six years to adapt to the current model, and even that is debatable with the struggles many teams had getting a handle on the quirky machine.

With a different aerodynamic balance, new rules and a dozen nuances that will make the 2013 model vastly different, it will take the top drivers and teams months to fully adjust and get comfortable with the new car. For some, it likely will take much longer, making the 2013 season a throwaway year.

That plays right into the hands of NASCAR’s biggest and strongest teams.

And that means that mighty Hendrick Motorsports could dominate in 2013.

Hendrick has ruled the sport for nearly two decades, winning 10 Sprint Cup championships in the past 18 years. And it is at its absolute best when things change, when NASCAR makes a major move to shake up the competition in its top series.

With more than 500 employees and the largest engineering staff in the sport, Hendrick is simply better equipped to adapt to such changes than any other team.

In 2007, when NASCAR first introduced the current car, Hendrick dominated as the new car was raced in 16 of the 36 races. With teams switching back and forth between models, Hendrick won 10 of the first 14 races and wound up winning 18 of 36.

Johnson and Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon were the dominant drivers that season, combining to win 16 races and racing head-to-head for the championship. Gordon dominated the regular season, building a 300-point lead over the first 26 races, before Johnson won his second straight championship by winning four straight races in the Chase.

A year later, when the current was implemented full time, things were more balanced, with Hendrick, Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing each winning more than eight races. But Johnson still dominated the Chase, cruising to a record-setting third straight title.

In the first three years with the new car, Hendrick won 39 races—16 more than the next closest team.

While the competition caught up in 2010-11—just 11 Hendrick wins in those two seasons—Hendrick bounced back to win the most races again this season (10).

And with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne now on the rise, you could argue that Hendrick has its greatest driver lineup ever.

All four drivers are likely to be in the Chase again next year and any of them could be serious championship contenders.

Jeff Gordon’s last great season came in 2007, when the current car made its debut. He has seen first-hand how Hendrick is always on the cutting edge of new technology and always the first to adapt to big changes.

“I think Hendrick Motorsports in general has shown how well they prepare when a new challenge is thrown at us like this new car,” Gordon said. “So I think we've got some great things in store for us for next year.”

That likely means another season of dominance for Hendrick Motorsports.

And that means Johnson enters 2013 as the early favorite and has a great shot to win a sixth Sprint Cup title.

So all the Johnson haters should enjoy their new champion and relish the brief respite with Johnson not on top of the NASCAR world.